Blogs from Neuquén, Argentina, South America - page 14

Advertisement


Seriously, if there ever was a family to rival the great Clark W and co, it would definatley be without a doubt this one. We all piled into the car and for those of you that know us, Timmy and I are not small men by any standards, however Joel ( aka the dirty man) most certanly is, which was bad luck for him as he was almost crushed to death in the back seat of the car for nigh on 5 hours ( 4 of which were on dirt road ) on the way from Bariloche to San Martin de los Andes. But in saying that there was never a minute go by without laughter or jokes cracked at someone elses expense. We even got told how mums new trampoline meant for exercise was only ... read more
Endearing
Beach Views

South America » Argentina » Neuquén » Junín de los Andes January 23rd 2006

Another perfect day!….Bariloche breakfast and then off under another Simpson’s sky, little fluffy clouds on azure background...sweet!....snowcaps on ragged mountains all around, perfecto asphalto, nice curvery, off towards San Martin de los Andes. Winding thru’ the mountains, in fact fanging thru’ the mountains, getting some of the dust off the bike…. close-up, wildflowers, behind, pine trees up as far as they can go, then rock and more rock right up to the snowline and the sky. Then the road plunges down, sweeping along another huge, dark greeny blue lake, this looks deep and cold, a few white caps whipped up by the wind, refreshing for me as its getting hot in the sun. Camp sites and campers in little pockets along the lake, its like the middle of nowhere but we often come across bunches of ... read more
Bike in another postcard
Main Street - Bariloche
Side Street - Bariloche


Villa La Angostura And with that we waved goodbye to Bariloche, 3 weeks after we arrived. We didn't go very far though, just 90 kms to the north-west. One of the park rangers in Iguazú had recommended this town to us as one of the prettiest in the Lake District, which is also the favourite destination of the better-off Argentinians for their summer holidays. Meaning accommodation would also be more expensive, so we decided to camp yet again. The sun was shining brightly after all... Naturally, it didn't last. That evening the heavens opened like it hadn't rained in a decade and by the time we got to the tent, slightly drenched, we had 4 leaks. Splendid! After piling up our possessions so that they wouldn't touch the walls and wrapping our feet in our waterproof ... read more
Arrayanes
The forest is life: don't let it burn
Villa la Angostura: The Port / El Puerto


I forgot to add in pictures from our stay at Ariatnas...of her new BELLY!!! We has such a good time with her and her family. Her and her husband bought land and they are now building a blowling alley..it´s the talk of the town...=) ... read more
coca light MMmmm
Yup Same Bus
Good Genes


The day after our hike up Cerro Negro, we decided to take it easy and hike to a couple of waterfalls which were just a few kilometers above the beautiful town of Villa Traful. (The guys agree that Villa Traful should be refered to as a settlement since it is too small to call it a town.) Just as we passed one of the last homes, we met a friendly dog which Noah named "Sly". Noah names most of the dogs that we meet on the trip. Sly hiked with us to both of the cascadas and then continued on with us to the alfajore bakery which was located on the edge of town. The guys have been sampling alfajores throughout our trip. Upon tasting the alfajores Del Montanes, they unanimously agreed that these are the ... read more
Hike to Las Cascadas
 Cascada Blanca
Sky Above The Falls


In the interest of getting out the most recent photos, the pictures will tell the story for now.... read more
Ryan in The Captain's Quarters
Fossilized Coral Formations
Puerto San Julian


So it was beautiful, pretty, gorgeous, amazing. Every corner brought a new view, a new surprise, the road dragged us onwards ... blah, blah, blah ... I´m sure you get the idea, and if not, wait until I get another CD burnt of my photos and I´ll show you what I mean. In short it was a pretty amazing day. There were a few niggles. Firstly the bitumen pavement ended about 1km from where we camped :( ... but it was 50km of the best dirt road we´ve cycled so far by a long, long way. Plus it becomes bitumen again at the Southern end of Lago Espejo, about 15km before El Cruce where we´re spending tonight. Another slight complaint was that about 8kms (of wonderfull downhill) from our windy and wet campsite we found another ... read more
Beautiful Forests
Yellow Flowers
Where we should have camped


It´s funny how when cycling you seem to have two types of day every day. Whilst you´re out there, the hills always seem so steep, relentless headwinds slow you to a crawl, rude drivers splash water and mud on you or drive you into the soft gravel on the side of the road, showers pass through all day chilling your hands and feet, the gravel roads just go on and on and on, and endless cries of why do I do this echo through your head (and if cycling with Christie you also get frequent expletives echoing around you ... I need to have words with her mum when I get home about her vocabulary) .... But then, in the evening, when you´re sitting by your tent in a gorgeous campground or with a beer in ... read more
Injured again
Waterfall
Our Camp


It rained all morning. We slept, ate breakfast, slept some more, ate lunch ... you get the picture. I discovered that blogs with photos take a bloody long time to put together (spent 6 hours in total most of which is sitting around waiting for photos to upload). The end. Forward Planning We did some rough forward planning this morning. Rough plan from here is to take a week to get to Bariloche and Puerto Montt. Another week or so from there through Chiloé to Chaiten. Two weeks to cycle the Carretera Austral to Chile Chico. Three or four weeks to bus to El Chalten then cycle to Calafate and Torres Del Paine (Christmas and new year should fall in there somewhere). Then a week or two to get down to Ushaia and back to Puerto ... read more


What a glorious mornings ride. We set off on our bikes before 9am and then enjoyed 3 or 4 hours of demanding but wonderful cycling. There were several significant climbs uphill over the first 22kms, usually followed by a fast downhill straight back down to the lake shore giving up all the hard work we´d done, but as I´ve found in the past if you hate the downhills because of the uphills to come well you just shouldn't be cycling. Christie´s achilles and knee were really hurting her by the time we stopped for a bit of a break and we were both looking forward to a rest in San Martin. We finally made it to the plateau above the lake, and got to enjoy 10km of fast riding down a long valley, a short climb ... read more
Breakfast
Tent
The only way is up.




Tot: 0.122s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 77; dbt: 0.06s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb